Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Found this at Boo Han Marrket in Edmonds, Washington. I thought since I’ve tried a lot of tteokbokki, I’d try out this one. The rice cake in this is just a different shape – sliced like little medallions. Kind of looks like what you’d find in a box of escalloped potatoes. Let’s give it a try!
I’m really happy about finding this one at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington! If you’ve not tried it, I highly recommend it – as long as the new packaging doesn’t mean new recipe at least. This came out quite a while back after a Korean comedian – Lee Kyung Kyu I believe – mentioned it. This is a jalapeno and chicken flavored broth variety. What’s interesting is that it does not have chicken in this one where it once did. It’s made in South Korea – so they would export US chicken to Korea, process it, then send it back in the product. Crazy, eh? Anyways, let’s cook it up!
Found this at Fred Meyer the other day (Kroger). It wasn’t in the Asian foods area, but with the domestic stuff which was interesting. I wasn’t a big fan of their initial variety (standard ultra spicy dry clone) but this has promise. Says it’s spicy too – let’s find out.
Found this one at Boo Han Market along with another one. Rapokki is a great thing I really enjoy – a pairing of tteokbokki (cylindrical rice cake) and ramyun (Korean instant noodle). That texture combo alongside a sweet and spicy sauce is really wonderful. Let’s try this variety.
Another one from Bibigo that’s certainly for the European market yet slap a distribution sticker on with US standard nutrition facts and there you go. Let’s give it a try!
You may have seen my review of this one’s creamy counterpart. That one was really good – curious how this will be. Nope – not ramen, but should be nice. Let’s give it a whirl!
Found this one at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington. This is very interesting as it isn’t a standard export for the US market – in fact, what’s interesting here is that while there’s English on the package, it’s prefixed with GB – Great Britain. This is an export version for Europe – so they slap a distro sticker with req’s for US sale and all done. I haven’t come across something like this before I don’t think. Interesting – Let’s give it a try.
Hey look! I sure remember my children losing their minds over Baby Shark, that song endlessly playing over and over, the hand gestures mimicking the chomping of sharks… I’m so relieved it’s over. Well, here we are. I must admit, shark shaped topokki sounds fascinating and this seems doable. Granted no, it’s not ramen. But it was at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington next to ramen. Let’s cook it.
Recently, I got an Instagram message from someone interested in this variety. Not to see what I thought of it, but asking if I had a recent scan of the packaging. They make rad little keychains for sale at events and Etsy soon, so I figured I haven’t done this newer packaging version, so why not? I’m in the mood I think, let’s give it a go.
I tried these initially years and years ago. Now they’ve got different packaging and I figured hey why not give them a fresh review. These aren’t cooked, although I’ve been curious what would happen if you did. Anyways, let’s give this snack noodle a go.
Alright, so previously I reviewed the hot, so logically, we now have the mild. Well, as logically as pho from South Korea seems. The hot was a very worthy rice noodle. Let’s try the mild next.
I think I had a different version of this at one point… From what I remember, Korean pho was pretty decent! Let’s give it a try.
The video for this one came out of Christmas Day, 2025 – you can see it at the bottom. I think there’s probably a lot of you that don’t know about my show Instant Noodle Recipe Time – it’s on pretty much every single day at 9am Pacific Time (Vancouver/Los Angeles). I’ve been doing the show for years and I think a lot of YouTube don’t know about me on www.theramenrater.com. Didn’t know I’d find this one over at HMart. I tried the pack version recently… Let’s try the bowl!
Alas, another new package Otoki variety! It used to be Ottogi, however they changed the brand name here in the United States. I’m in the mood – found it at HMart – let’s do it.
A big thanks to The Fat Hipster for sending this my way. Yep – banana. That’s bananas. Well, it works for me – that sounds bizarre and IU like bizarre in a sea of just plain chicken varieties on the market. I expect cries of ‘dude I need to try this – where can I get it?’ Book a flight to China or spend a lot of money is my guess. This one seems to be made in South Korea, however it’s China-exclusive. There will of course be a cooking vid and a mukbang below. Let us delve into bananamonium.
I review this in the waning days of summer. When I was young, I remember it was about now when back to school sales started – they start almost before school lets out for summer, making the gauge worthless at this point. But the long afternoon shadows herald the change coming soon. It’s August 5th, 2025. Let’s cook.
Say! Here’s a new one – I was contacted by Bias about a new non-fried, Vegan friendly, and low-cal ramyun that’s supposed to be really tasty. Time to find out!
Hey Nissin you’ve been holding out! This is a new one I found at my local Safeway supermarket of all places. There are two siblings in this range – a tonkotsu and a coconut curry – both of which I’m all over. Let’s try this one.
Rapokki is a combo of rice cake and noodle and usually has a sweet and spicy sauce – this sounds like it’ll be a good one! Let’s have at it!
This one came by way of James from Lakeside, California – thanks again! I must admit that this range seems to be pretty good stuff. Maybe this is a kind of aglio olio thing? Let’s find out.
Here’s another form factor of the Jin range – cups. I’ve reviewed the mild as well. Let hit the spicy!
Say! I love tteokbokki but I’ve NEVER heard of a variety in this flavor! I’m really quite curious… One way to find out – let’s give it a try!
Just over 2 years ago, I reviewed the local Korean version of this one. Found this at HMart which was a bit of a shock; their single pack selection has been abyssmal recently… I wish we had the RT Mart that was in Taiwan I got to visit – holy crap that place had the mother of all noodle aisles – singles and multipacks of everything – both sides, long as a Costco aisle – no joke. Anyways, enough thinking about that – let’s give it a try.
So first, I did a pack like this of original topokki. Next, a carbonara cup. This is rapokki – a combo of noodle and rice cake. It’s usually a really great melding of textures. This should be awesome – let’s give it a try.
Here’s another Otoki variety for the United States and another packaging redesign. I don’t recall doing a tempura udon bowl before though… Yeah, no – I haven’t. Let’s give it a whirl!
Now this one sounds good. In the last post, I complained about all the creamy and spicy varieties out there, but this is tteokbokki and it’s hard for me to get cranky about tteokbokki. Let’s hit the start button on the microwave!
This is the first of a lot of tteokbokki varieties I’ll be reviewing from Good Seoul. This product is made in South Korea and at this point distributed in the GCC and soon Europe. That’s great – everyone need tteokbokki in their life I swear! This came out of a big box of varieties they sent from Dubai! Let’s give it a try!
*unless you don’t like Christmas and then just plain merriness to you
Found this at GMart in Lynnwood, WA. This is a mung bean/sweet potato thread noodle with a low calorie amount of 120. It claims that K-pop stars will stay fit and skinny by eating this. I dunno about that, but it does sound interesting, so I got it. Let’s give it a try.
Here’s another one I’ve not tried and it’s interesting. This one isn’t produced in Hungary like the previous ones I’ve shown but instead in Vietnam. I’ve noticed many companies producing in Vietnam – guessing that there’s a really good reason for this, probably has to do with cost and production volume? But that’s kinda outside my purview. This one’s Vegetarian friendly and touts a Korean spicy flavor. Sounds good – let’s give it a go!
Here’s an interesting one I found at HMart. Speaking of HMart, I would like to speak directly to them. Hey HMart – how are you today? Would you do me a huge favor? Would you put more varieties in your single pack area? You have so many multipacks which is great, but they’re not well represented in your single pack selection. Expand it, please! Thank you for your time, sincerly, myself. Let’s give this a try!
I was kindly given this one by my kids’ morning bus driver. He’s a really nice guy and we’ve talked a lot about instant ramyun from Korea – he’s Korean I should add. As I write this, it’s been almost a month since my last review. I took a week to do editing and readying 5 top ten lists – it takes a lot of time. Then I took a couple more weeks off. It’s been a nice break, but I’m done I need to do my work lol – I really enjoy it and productivity is like a drug to me when it comes to this stuff. What’s funny is that by the time this comes out, my kids will have a new morning bus driver and it’ll be the new school year. I posted #5212 today, so that’s…. Hmmm… Oh wow – mid November? Heck, I could take summer off… But I like doing this. Let’s do this one up real nice and big thanks to my kids’ bus drivers – they’re really nice people.
They had a sale at HMart of this variety and it was $4. I’ve had it many times and love this stuff – but this is a little different. It’s got a little yellow triangle, mentioning ‘non-soggy noodles.’ Generally, ramyeon that is cooked isn’t soggy or spongy. Is the noodle different from previous versions? The sale kind of seems to me that it might be. This is an export version for the US market. Let’s cook it up.
Okay, so I don’t live under a rock so I know about these things. In fact, I saw an advert for this awhile back and thought ‘oh – the kids might like this.’ So, I let them check it out and I watched a bit of the movie. I hated it. More than I hate slicing a bagel incorrectly. Well, maybe not that much, but I’m really annoyed by this film. I know that a lot of people really like it and that’s fine. However, I do not. It’s K-Pop’s version of Frozen. I went through that Frozen crap when the kids were really little, so another take on it really isn’t something I can embrace. Plus, the animation is awful. The music is catchy, but not the catchy K-Pop I really like; this is so… Commercial. But I do enjoy a tie-in product and this one’s pretty cool. I should mention that the Korean local version of this (yes, this is made in the United States in a great factory in Rancho Cucamonga, California) came with stickers, and I did hear chatter that people over there were buying tons of Shin, taking out the stickers, then selling sets of those stickers on eBay or their equivalent.
Found this one that demands refrigeration at HMarr recently. Rapokki! Well, tteokbokki and chewy noodle… A troublesome thing happened though – the sticker on the side was very stuck and since refrigerated, the paper wasn’t compliant. Got that sticker halfway off and then r-r-rip! So apologies for that on the pic of the side panels. Anyways, let’s give it a try!
So as I type this, it’s Cinco De Mayo. My eyes are watery and I’m sneezing. Really allergied out. This variety was chatted about with friends in the Section 42 mod group – the admins for Ramen Junkies. I decided I’d re-review it; new package, over ten years… Last time, it made my bottom ten. Oh wow – more than ten years – it was review 161! So that’s 15 years ago. Sheesh! This one’s made in South Korea and packaged for US sale. Let’s give it another try – maybe I’ll like it now?
I’ve been looking forward to this one! Rapokki is a combo of ramyun and tteokbokki – tubes of chewy rice flour. That rose flavor though is something else – a combo of sweet and savory and creamy and wow. This should be great stuff – let’s hit it.
Thanks to James from Lakeside, California for sending this one! Never heard of this brand or range before. What’s interesting too is it’s squid as well – I like squid. Let’s try it out!
Big thank you to Pher Engi for sending this along! Recently, I reviewed a tom yum flavored dry noodle from this range. This one has soup. Sounds good – curious how it will be, so let’s cook it up and find out.
Big thanks to Pher Engi for this one! So too warm in the bedroom at night so open the window. Writing this during allergy season so pollen invades room. Misery. That’s how I start my day. Let’s cook.
A big thanks to Noodle Journey for sending this one. So this cold noodle usually has apple I believe but this time it’s strawberry. Very curious about this, so lett’s cook!
